Capacity Building of local and regional public administration in Eastern Partnership countries

The study Capacity Building of local and regional public administration in Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries has been conducted by CASE for the European Committee of Regions. The study provided an overview of capacity building programmes, trainings and technical assistance currently available for local and regional authorities of the following countries: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus. Georgia and Republic of Moldova. As the first step experts analysed the offer of capacity building programmes for each country. They identified degree and non-degree programmes offered by the Public Administration Academies, bilateral and multilateral programmes, trainings offered by foreign governments, international NGOs, political foundation and EU-based public administration trainings. Secondly, experts analysed the gaps and bottlenecks of the training programmes for each countries. Thanks to desk research and some insightful interviews of public servants, they highlighted recurrent problems of corruption, a politicised recruitment process of public servants and little legislative and fiscal autonomy of local and regional authorities. Overall, a lack of trainings focusing on technical skills, project management skills, public finance and human resources management has also been identified. Finally, some recommendations have been proposed for the EU in order to provide a sustainable expert support and training for local and regional public administration. A suggested training curricula applicable to the entire EaP region has also been suggested.